Lear (NYSE:LEA) Shares Down 1.9%

Shares of Lear Co. (NYSE:LEA) fell 1.9% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $140.56 and last traded at $141.60. 113,592 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 535,476 shares. The stock had previously closed at $144.38.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on LEA shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Lear from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Lear from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Lear from $195.00 to $179.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Benchmark boosted their price target on Lear from $188.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lear has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $161.89.

Lear Stock Up 2.3 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $137.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $135.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.96, a PEG ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.53.

Lear (NYSE:LEA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The auto parts company reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.12 by ($0.09). Lear had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 2.44%. The business had revenue of $5.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.69 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.81 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Lear Co. will post 14.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lear Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. Lear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 10,652 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.86, for a total transaction of $1,415,224.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,627 shares in the company, valued at $1,810,483.22. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Lear news, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 10,652 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.86, for a total value of $1,415,224.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,810,483.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Raymond E. Scott sold 2,977 shares of Lear stock in a transaction on Monday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.26, for a total transaction of $402,669.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,533.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,379 shares of company stock valued at $2,205,121 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lear

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Lear by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,792,397 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,226,452,000 after buying an additional 227,230 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Lear by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,912,006 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $793,391,000 after purchasing an additional 45,567 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Lear by 47.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 3,064,807 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $437,259,000 after purchasing an additional 993,216 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Lear by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,463,244 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $351,234,000 after buying an additional 12,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lear by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,179,175 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $307,721,000 after buying an additional 153,282 shares during the period. 97.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lear Company Profile

Lear Corporation designs, develops, engineers, manufactures, assembles, and supplies automotive seating, and electrical distribution systems and related components for automotive original equipment manufacturers in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. Its Seating segment offers seat systems, seat subsystems, keyseat components, seat trim covers, seat mechanisms, seat foams, and headrests, as well as surface materials, such as leather and fabric for automobiles and light trucks, compact cars, pick-up trucks, and sport utility vehicles.